Monday, February 18, 2008

New tune alertFinished another tune for the RPM Challenge, and its up on the Dub Setsuko Myspace page, called 'Bang bang'. Go have a listen, let me know what you think. Finished 4 tunes so far, 6 to go.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, February 16Digging thru my records getting ready for the show, I realised I own a lot of cheese, so the first hour of today's show was Cheesy Listening. How much Sergio Mendes is too much?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Meanwhile, at the rollerdisco...I signed up for the RPM Challenge at the start of February (write and record an album in a month). Came up with a goofy new alias (Dub Setsuko) and started recording. Up to seven songs so far. Check out my first finished tune at http://www.myspace.com/dubsetsuko

You can download it too, if you feel so inclined. Enjoy! (Or download it from here if you're not down with Myspace.)

I also did an interview yesterday for NZ's National Radio, along with Dave Karlotski from RPM Challenge (phoning in from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he runs The Wire, a weekly alternative newspaper). ADDED Now online here - www.radionz.co.nz/national/music/talk under 'A' for Access All Areas...

He mentioned that one of the first albums finished so far is from New Zealand, an improvisational album. And the amazing fact that when they started RPM Challenge in 2006, it was strictly their local town (pop: 20,000), and they had 200 bands enter. That's a vibrant pop culture right there. The interview should go to air this weekend.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Funk this"Some of these new artists, I just want to say, ‘The post office is hiring.’ Others I just want to embrace. I would love to educate some of these kids with funk, soul and rock … as for Amy Winehouse, she’s just walking her walk.”

— Chaka Khan, winner for R&B album, “Funk This,” and R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal, “Disrespectful” More reactions from winners here.

Monday, February 11, 2008

It's business time!I was checking the LA Times to see if anything vaguely interesting was happening at the Grammys, looking at the winners, thinking "I don't care about any of these artists", but then I saw this...

ADDED: Stuff.co.nz has just posted up this news, noting that "The last New Zealander to win a Grammy was opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in 1984, according to the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand." WRONG! [The Herald got it wrong too - scratch that, they fixed it]Expat Kiwi jazz musician Alan Broadbent has been nominated numerous times for the Grammys, and won in 1998 and 2000, for his arranging on albums by Natalie Cole and Shirley Horn, respectively.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Tune inSome exciting news for youse - scored myself a new radio show - taking over from Danielle Cormack as host of High Noon Tea on Kiwi FM from this Sunday, Feb 10, 3-5pm. Tune in for two hours of dubbed out musical madness, on the FM dial, at 102.2 Auckland, 102.1 Wellington, 102.5 Canterbury and Sky Digital Channel 500. Or listen online here.

Also, some excellent weekend reading - been meaning to point you in the direction of local author Chris Bourke's new blog, well worth a read. He's been doing some research, digging back thru old issues of Truth. Fascinating stuff.

Friday, February 01, 2008

"... The industry has had its problems with DRM, most notoriously in the case of the Sony CD copy-protection that secretly installed a “rootkit” on customers’ PCs, exposing them to malicious internet attacks.

But it wasn’t consumer problems that turned the majors: it was more the fact that DRM – which they had hoped would allow them to control their markets – had in fact become a tool for others to manipulate markets in ways that stripped the record companies of power..."

Old-time music: CDs are not antiques. Yet."... The stark fact is that music consumption is moving away from retail purchasing, yet more music than ever is being recorded. You can hardly escape music in daily life: radio, ringtones, music TV, video games, TV ads and promos, YouTube, MySpace and the ubiquitous iPod. Meanwhile Auckland’s big new Vector Arena is regularly filling for concerts. So what’s going on?"

oh yeah, killed a tagger lately? Hey, let's demonise the youth, cos that's a great way to treat the future of our country. Let's alienate them. Yeah right. This is going to be a crappy year full of political hot air. Fuck that.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

29 Days"February is just around the corner (already?!), which means it's time for another RPM Challenge. While National Novel Writing Month asks participants to complete a novel each November, this challenge dares musicians to record an album during the month of February. Last year, more than 850 albums were recorded and posted online.

Head to the official site to sign up and hear 8,500 songs that were submitted during last year's event. The site also includes participant blogs, photos and more, and you can go here to watch a video introduction. If you join the festivities, let us know so we can hear your tunes!" Via Pop Candy.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Are you on Facebook?

You need to read this article. And then delete your account (or at least your account info).With friends like these ... Facebook has 59 million users - and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won't catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information - not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking site. (From the Guardian, was in the weekend papers too, with a different headline - "Why Facebook is evil". Turns out its run by a neo-con nutjob.)